How We Came To Be
by velja
Summary: 1864: Stefan doesn't know how to deal with Katherine's bold advances. He tries talking to Damon and a significant misunderstanding sets things in motion that will determine both brothers' life, death and afterlife. Possibly m/m later, for now on hold.


**How We Came To Be**

by velja

**Spoilers:** TV Series up to episode 1x13 "Children of the Damned"

**Pairing:** Stefan/Katherine, Damon/Katherine, Stefan/Damon/Katherine

**Setting:** 1864 (so Stefan and Damon are still human, Katherine isn't)

_**Author's note:**__ This story deals with the Salvatore brother's past. We know that both had sexual encounters with Katherine but we didn't see how it all began (yet). So I asked myself, considering the time, how would Damon and especially the morally upstanding Stefan react to Katherine's seduction? Wouldn't they have at least some small doubts about the highly immoral sins of the flesh she's offering to them? Because – hey – we're talking 19__th__ Century Gentlemen here!_

_I'm new to this fandom but I got completely hooked in the matter of seconds. English isn't my native language and I don't have a beta, so all mistakes are my own. I still hope that you enjoy this._

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**Part One: The Misunderstanding**

_Mystic Falls, Spring 1864_

A young man of seventeen sat on his bed with his back against the heavy wooden headboard, his long, slender legs comfortably stretched out before him. He had the sleeves of his white shirt casually rolled up to his ellbows and his head was bent over a small leather-bound book on his lap. The tousled mop of light brown hair fell over his equally colored eyes every other second and he repeatedly lifted his left hand to push it behind his ear. But it never stayed put for long.

His right hand held a black fountain pen, closely hovering over the brittle page, but apart from the date the young man had written only two short words as today's entry in his personal journal. _**Five weeks** _gleamed in black ink from the top left corner.

Stefan Salvatore sighed and brought the pen's dry end to his mouth. He sucked on it, lost in deep thought.

Five weeks. That's how long Katherine had been living with him, his older brother Damon and their father Guiseppe on their spacious estate in Mystic Falls, Virginia.

Five weeks since their young charge from Atlanta had drafted into their lives like a warm spring breeze and had blessed the house with the first female laughter since their mother's death two years ago.

Five weeks overflowing with lively conversation, lighthearted games on the lawn and more laughter, warmth and happiness than Stefan had ever felt before.

But those five weeks had also been filled with the most agony, the deepest struggles and strongest doubts he'd ever experienced. Doubts he'd never thought he would have. Struggles he'd never thought he'd have to fight against.

A fight he could no longer be sure of winning. A fight Stefan wasn't even certain he wanted to win anymore.

He let another low sigh slip past his lips and looked up from the journal. Writing his jumbled thoughts off his heart no longer eased his troubled mind.

He needed to talk to someone about this.

About Katherine and her… did he dare to call it advances?

Because that's what the young man on the verge of adulthood felt they were. Katherine was making advances on him. She was constantly dazzling him with bright smiles, doe eyes and subtle yet persistent touches. Her slender hands had burned through the fabric of his shirts and coats so fervently that Stefan was surprised they hadn't left any scorch marks yet.

And her words… softly whispered for him alone to hear. Words of praise for his handsome features, his sensitive mind and his well-formed body, strong and agile and so full of life; words meant to flatter and compliment him, yet all they ever accomplished was making him feel embarrassed and self-conscious.

Even here and now, in the safety of his own room, the mere thought of Katherine's seductively whispered innuendos let Stefan's face grow hot. If he were to write those bold words down, not that he ever would but if he'd dare… he knew seeing them on paper would have him blushing like one of the purple roses that grew in large bushes in the garden.

Their garden with its many shaded corners and dark alcoves, to where Katherine had forwardly pulled him – by the hand – countless times in the last few weeks. There, seated on small stone benches or low fountain walls, hidden from prying eyes, she'd made him sit down next to her, far too close to be considered appropriate by social standards and his own alike.

And there, only yesterday, Katherine had scooted closer still until she'd all but sat in his lap, her surprisingly strong grip on his arm preventing him from putting the proper distance between them, and she'd taken his hand into hers, his palm starting to sweat immediately. She'd leaned over so that she could whisper into his ear, her low-purred flatterings turning more and more intimate every second, and when Stefan had tried to turn his burning face away, to hide his embarrassment behind closed eyes, Katherine had laughed quietly and had pulled his face towards her again.

Her soft palm had grazed his cheek, fingertips ghosting over his lower lip had sent shivers down his spine and her soft, spiteless voice had sounded like pearls bouncing off a glass surface.

"Open your eyes, my pretty boy. Don't be shy, let it happen!"

Stefan hadn't been able to resist her and, trying to hide his troubled emotions, had finally looked into her huge dark eyes.

They'd seemed to become even larger when Katherine had leaned forward and with her gaze fixed somewhere low on his face had eventually closed the small distance between them.

Her lips had met his. She'd kissed him and, oh, what a sweet kiss it had been!

Stefan felt goosebumps rising up his bare arms now that he dared to remember the feeling of Katherine's lush mouth closing over his, her rosy lips sucking and drawing his lower lip between hers.

She'd tasted of something sweet, like honey, but somehow richer and more coppery. Like honey dipped in the darkest chocolate Stefan had ever had. But at the same time he'd known that he'd never tasted anything like it before.

And nothing he'd tasted before had ever made his every nerve ending seem to be set aflame. The second Katherine had kissed him his body had hummed with electricity until he'd thought he was slowly burning from within. The sudden fire had scorched him, consumed his every sense and every muscle, every vein, every last cell of his body had come to life and he'd felt…

Indescribable, that's what kissing Katherine had felt like.

His bodily reactions on the other hand, now they'd unfortunately been something he'd become quite an expert on describing. His journal was full of them. Descriptions, painfully detailed, of every stage of arousal he'd ever felt, complete with thorough narrations of the situations that had brough them forth.

Truly contemplating it for the first time now Stefan suddenly noticed that, for the last two years or so, his journals' entries seemed to consist nothing but… that.

Nothing but one embarrassing moment after the other in which he'd become painfully aroused. Embarrassing mostly because… well, because of the people starring in them.

No, not people.

One person only.

It had only ever been a single one that had made his body become alife with passion and need. Until Katherine had come along it had only ever been…

Damon.

And the scariest part was that Stefan was a thousand times more freaked out by his erotic phantasies being of another man than he was by it being his own brother.

Stefan felt a sudden chill run down his spine and he quickly closed his eyes and shivered. When he opened them again his gaze fell onto the page of his journal where he'd started to voice his troubled thoughts earlier.

_**Five weeks** _the entry had read before and now Stefan realized that he must have continued spilling his thoughts without even noticing it. Because suddenly more words scribbled in black ink grazed the page.

**_Five weeks… God help me or I'll be damned in the one of the seven hells that's reserved for sodomites. Save me, Katherine, from ever defiling my brother or any other man._**

Stefan stared at the words written in his own neat handwriting that he had no recollection of noting down until his eyes began to water and the letters blurred and swam before his eyes.

A knock on the door, that playful tapping only Damon ever used, finally had Stefan tearing his face away from his journal and he looked up just in time to see his brother saunter into the room.

Damon, four years older and in looks completely different yet no less attractive, never simply walked, Stefan thought distractedly. No, it seemed more like some kind of posing that Damon did with every step he'd take. Every move, every slight shift his slender body made, seemed deliberately rehearsed and practiced to near perfection. Every gesture, every smile, every facial expression never simply appeared around his sharp-angled jaw without an agenda.

And now the smile on Damon's face lit Stefan's room like a bright beam of sunshine on a cloudy winter's day. Stefan was blinded by the sheer presence his brother radiated by simply smiling at him. So it took him a few seconds to notice anything else beside the nearly tangible power Damon's entrance possessed.

Like his clothes for example.

"Ta da!" the older brother uttered for a greeting and came over to where Stefan sat motionless on the bed. Stefan could only stare at him in stunned silence. Damon was… he was wearing…

Damon's handsome grin faded and he scoffed: "Oh, don't look at me like you've never seen a man in uniforms before!"

Stefan finally came out of his stupor. "I… well, not you, Damon! What is this? Why are you dressed in Confederacies?"

"Because," Damon plopped down onto the edge of the bed and rolled his eyes, "it obviously falls to me as the older one of us to defend our country from the evil Yankees!"

Stefan gulped down whatever he'd wanted to say next and instead looked away for a second. When his brown eyes met the blue of his brother's again he seemed as composed as ever.

"When do you have to leave?"

"This very afternoon. Father will take me to the station himself," Damon's voice took on a bitter edge. "Probably to make sure that I won't bail the last second."

"Damon," Stefan reproached but his brother held up a hand and stopped him from going any further. "Alright, I won't start. By the way, I have a far more pressing matter to discuss with you."

Stefan waited for Damon to elaborate.

"The beautiful Miss Katherine Pierce," his brother went on and his face twisted into another smile. Stefan couldn't help it, he blushed and quickly looked down.

"What about her?"

"Well," Damon placed a hand onto Stefan's shoulder and gave it a quick squeeze. "Now that you're going to be the lady's only male company for a while, apart from father of course, I expect you to take good care of her. I want you to promise me, Stefan, to look after her. Entertain her while I'm not around to charm her properly, will you?"

"I…" Stefan nearly choked. Entertain Katherine… he knew where that would lead eventually, didn't he? He'd barely managed to escape Katherine's advances till now and with Damon gone… It's not that Stefan didn't want what Katherine had so obviously and unashamedly offered… God, no, how he wanted it!

But… you weren't supposed to do that with a woman unless you were at least engaged, right? Stefan knew that it was considered a sin to give in to one's carnal lust without the proper blessings of marriage. And weren't women who offered themselves to just any man… weren't they… a whore?

"No!"

Stefan wasn't aware that he'd spoken out loud until he heard Damon's response: "I know, little brother, that you could never replace my charming self but could you at least try to ease her mind and keep her from worrying about me too much?"

"What? I…" Stefan stared into his brother's clear blue eyes and decided there and then that he'd have to tell Damon… he'd have to confess. "Damon, look," he sighed and took a steadying breath. "There's something you need to know about Katherine. She's…" He broke off, not sure how to phrase it.

"Oh," Damon suddenly exclaimed and for once his face slipped into a completely unguarded expression. He quickly composed himself again. "That! I know, Stefan."

"You know?" Stefan was completely shocked. "How?"

"Well, she told me so herself."

Stefan regarded Damon's completely relaxed position, the careless shrug of his shoulders and the sly smirk, and in the blink of an eye he was certain that if Damon had no qualms whatsoever about Katherine's rather scandalous behavior… then he needn't worry either, did he?

Perhaps he'd been mistaken in his beliefs that this… this thing between men and women, whatever you'd want to call it, that it was considered forbidden and a sin worth burning in hell for. Perhaps being with a woman, knowing her in the biblical sense, outside the stage of matrimony was more common than he'd thought? Only you wouldn't speak about it aloud?

It was completely natural after all, the need to feel another person's warmth engulf you, swallow you whole. The need to delve into and explore another person's deepest feelings, share the pleasure that human flesh under your hands was capable of evoking.

It was completely natural, it had to be.

Stefan relaxed visibly. A small smile even grazed his lips when he finally turned back to Damon. "Well, I have to say I'm truly relieved that you're not shocked by this."

"I must confess that I was shocked when Katherine first told me. Shocked and… afraid." Damon admitted quietly. Then his eyes got a wicked gleam that made them shine nearly silver. "And I didn't believe her at first but then, after she explained things in detail… well, now I think it's exciting!"

"Wait," Stefan frowned confused. "She explained? In detail?"

"She did. You know, the particulars on how it's done and…"

"How it's done?" Stefan repeated bewildered. Damon didn't know? Did that mean that Damon had never done it himself? Stefan couldn't quite believe it. He had always thought his brother to be the more experienced one. He'd been certain that Damon had bedded at least one of the family's female servants.

Obviously he'd been mistaken. Again. Huh.

"Yes, and then she showed me…" Damon broke off when the strict voice of their father suddenly reached the room.

"Damon, where are you? We need to leave!"

Damon let out a huff and threw one last piercing glance at Stefan before he stood up from the bed and slowly walked to the door.

"Damon, wait!" Stefan hurried after his brother and caught up with him in the doorframe. Damon turned around again and Stefan pulled him into a tight hug. "I'm sorry that you have to go. I would have liked to talk about this further, if I'd only known…"

"Me, too. Little brother, me too." Stefan could feel Damon's face split into a grin where it rested against his cheek. He tried to quickly soak up the last bit of warmth from the touch and then he broke the embrace, held Damon at arms length and stared deep into his eyes.

"And don't you dare get yourself killed in one of your stupid moves to play hero, you hear me?"

Damon's smile never faltered but his eyes took on a serious glint. "Never, little brother, I promise. For that would unfortunately result in me missing out on the great adventure Katherine has planned for us, and I'd never want that, now would I?"

Damon winked at him for the last time and then he jumped down the broad staircase. In three big leaps he was downstairs and out of the front door.

Stefan kept staring after him for a long time, not sure what his brother's last comment had been about. What big adventure? Had he meant the, you know, what Stefan thought he'd meant? But why had Damon said "us"? Had Katherine perhaps been trying to seduce Damon as well?

Oh, well… Stefan wouldn't know for sure until he'd ask Katherine, would he?

So after one last look through the window where he caught a glimpse of the family's carriage taking Damon away Stefan went to look for Katherine. His boot-clad feet echoed across the empty halls until he'd reached her private room.

Stefan took a deep breath, knocked hesitantly and when her soft voice answered he opened the door and stepped into Katherine's chamber.

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In the meantime Damon, determined to avoid talking to his father who was seated opposite from him in the carriage, thought about the conversation he'd just had with his little brother. He'd always loved to tease him with being much too naïve for his age.

But apparently Stefan was no longer the clueless little boy Damon had still taken him for. It seemed that Katherine, the beautiful and mysterious queen of his own heart, had clued Stefan in on her dark secret.

The woman, who looked like nothing but a sweet innocent little girl to other people's eyes, was a vampire.

Damon sometimes still had trouble believing in a myth like that, although he'd seen with his very own eyes how Katherine had torn apart some stranger's throat with her teeths and then had drunken the man's blood.

He'd witnessed the monster inside the girl maim and kill more than one innocent person and had experienced the thrill that came with being on the wrong end of said monster's sharp canines himself.

Damon had never experienced a more breathtaking moment than when Katherine's teeths had pierced the sensitive skin on his neck while he'd been sheathed deep inside her sex. He hadn't been able to hold himself back any longer then. The small amount of control he'd held over his body during the act had slipped and he'd spilled his hot seed into her while at the same time his boiling blood had been slowly drained from his veins.

That bliss had been beyond anything he'd ever felt before and he would gladly give his life away to be in that position again.

And now Stefan had apparently come to know the same exquisite sensation.

There was no jealousy whatsoever accompanying that thought in Damon's head, he didn't think himself to even be capable of that particular feeling. No, Damon was sure that nothing could ever come between him and his little brother, they were too close for anything like that.

And besides, Damon couldn't even be certain that Katherine had actually done anything to Stefan yet, or rather with him.

Stefan would have mentioned if he'd been introduced to that special kind of carnal pleasure by Katherine (or any other woman for that matter, Stefan had always confided in his older brother). And the last time Damon had been with Katherine, this very morning when he'd sneaked into her room and her bed, she hadn't hinted at any interest in Stefan at all.

So, no. Damon was sure that his little brother's virtue was still firmly intact. And it would probably stay that way until he'd marry a nice, boring girl and would start procreating.

If he'd live long enough to eventually drop the shy poet's act and gather the courage to actually approach a girl, that is, Damon thought with a fond smile.

He couldn't help it, he loved his little brother no matter that he was a sap and a poet at heart.

And with that unconditional love came the certainty that even if Katherine had taken an interest in Stefan as well as himself, even if she'd chosen to let Stefan in on her secret and had shown him things he'd never thought possible… even if Katherine had taken Stefan into her bed or was planning to do so eventually…

Damon wouldn't voice any objections. He would go with whatever Katherine had decided for herself. Because that's what love was all about, wasn't it?

He would share Katherine with his brother, just like they'd shared everything else in life before.

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**TBC**

_**Note: **This started out as a one-shot but I guess I don't do them very well. So this story will continue eventually. In the meantime, please tell me what you think._


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